Saturday, May 4, 2013

Jane's Walk

For whatever reason people like to associate persons, places or
things with certain days of the year. The first weekend in May, for
example, is Jane's Walk – a celebratory stroll around your
community as if you were a tourist. Jane's Walk is named after Jane
Jacobs, an urban theorist and writer.

Jane's Walk is a product of Tides Canada, the people behind Occupy Wall
Street and the anti-capitalist AdBusters magazine. The federal
minister of natural resources has accused Tides of taking, “funding
from foreign special interest groups to undermine Canada's national
economic interest.”
And this appears to be true: George Soros gave Tides Center $3.5 million, who then gave AdBusters $185,000. Not long after AdBusters and Occupy Wall Street started
promoting the “robin hood tax,” a tax that benefits position traders
like Soros. Conspiracy or not – Tides Center and the affiliated Tides Canada are fascist
think-tanks that strive to influence public opinion. They promote
the merger of government and corporate power while limiting the
spectrum of civil discourse.

Tides
Canada is against everything Jane Jacobs stood for. The
ideas she brings forth in her writings reveal a society fundamentally
at odds with the status quo. This is evident in her 20-year-long battle
with NYC central planner, Robert Moses. It's likely that a vast
majority of people out
on
their Jane's Walk have never actually read any of her
work. And if they have, they probably didn't understand much of it.
Jacobs is incredibly thorough. Her ideas are profoundly
simple once
realized, but complex en route.

Jane
Jacobs is the
libertarian outsider. She developed a theory of human action through
the eyes of a city as the centre of civilization. Her method was
highly inductive and conjectural – but self-evident when one
examines city life for oneself. Her method contrasts with the
Austrian school but both
come to the same conclusion:
economic progress rests on individuals cooperating,
trading and diversifying
goods.

One
who is well-versed in praxeology
will probably understand TheNature of Economies
on a deeper level than
one who isn't.
Jane's Walk participants
may advocate the subsidized housing ideas from TheDeath and Life of Great American Cities.
But only those fluent in the
Austrian school
will understand that these ideas can only work if conducted by
competitive organizations collecting payment voluntarily (that
is, private enterprise).Jane
Jacobs
may have been ignorant of Austrian economics but in her writings the
role of the entrepreneur is incalculable. She
may have never subscribed to libertarian ethics, but as Riggenbach
has pointed out, her world-view is undeniably libertarian.

Jane
Jacobs legacy isn't found in Tides Canada activity propaganda. It is found buried in the pages of her works.
Don't go for a Jane's Walk – stay home and read Jane's
books.